Felts and Parker are each Austin bound

Jasper catcher Ty Parker has always been outspoken and he was no different when talking about Orangefield catcher Jacob Felts.

Parker and Felts had been talked about in the same breath all season by area baseball fans whenever people asked, “Who’s the area’s best catcher?”

The early counts from the precinct showed Felts to be the winner of that race.

Look at what he did last season. As a junior he hit .471 and was an all-state Class 3A selection. He helped lead Orangefield to the third round of the playoffs where it just fell short of beating Bridge City.

Then there’s the fact that he along with Nederland ace pitcher Kirby Bellow both verbally committed to go to the University of Texas in August.

Felts officially signed with Texas in November.
The scholarship to Texas had Felts as the early frontrunner in many people’s minds.

Unless those people were from Jasper. They’ll tell you that Parker, who signed with Texarkana Junior College, was just as good, just as strong and just as talented as Felts.

When the season started, Southeast Texas started to understand why people in Jasper were so big on Parker.
Parker didn’t nab an all-state selection like Felts last season. But he did rebound from a season that was as bad as it could get as he contracted mono and lost 25 pounds in three weeks.

He took the summer to regain his strength playing in a Christian baseball lead and came back to hit an area-high 10 home runs.

All those accomplishments made that question about who is the best catcher harder to answer.

When asked to talk about Felts, that’s when the always outspoken Parker shared his thoughts.

“He’s definitely a great catcher and I wished him luck at UT,” Parker said. “Really, I don’t even think he will make it to Austin because I think he’ll get drafted.”

When Felts was made aware of Parker’s comments, he took it as a major compliment.

Felts said that he was also impressed with the way Parker played in the series as his Jasper counterpart had a two-run single in Game 1 and another RBI in Game 2.

When the two met at the end of the game, they shared an embrace and gave each other some kind words.

“I told him to go protect at my home in Austin,” Felts said. “We’ve known each other for a while now and I just wanted to wish him good luck.”